US ARMY wives were in revolt
yesterday after a promised withdrawal from Iraq for thousands of
soldiers was postponed for a third time.
Wives at the US army base in Fort Stewart, Georgia, home of the
US 3rd Infantry Division, which has been in the Gulf since
September, said that they were planning to organise a protest march
near the base and run a mass letter-writing campaign to Capitol
Hill. The division has suffered 36 deaths in the war and its
aftermath, more than any other unit.
The protest from the families, told only last week by Donald
Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, that their husbands would be
home by September, elicited a confused response from the Pentagon
and added to the perception that continued attacks on US troops have
left post-war plans in disarray.
The delayed withdrawal came as India, Pakistan and France refused
to send troops to Iraq, despite requests from the Bush
Administration for military support. The countries said that they
balked at sending soldiers without a UN mandate, dealing a
significant blow to US hopes of reducing its troop numbers in Iraq.
As recently as May the Bush Administration said that it wanted to
cut the US military presence there by about 30,000 to 40,000 troops.
Washington had hoped that India would send a full division of at
least 17,000 troops, making its contingent the second largest behind
the US deployment of 146,000. The Indian Foreign Ministry said:
�Were there to be an explicit UN mandate . . . the Government of
India could consider the deployment of our troops to Iraq.�
Even before that announcement, 3rd Division headquarters sent an
e-mail to wives on Monday night telling them that �due to the
current level of violent acts . . . and the potential for violent
acts in Iraq� two thirds of the division, or more than 10,000
troops, would stay indefinitely.
The e-mail was followed 30 minutes later by another from the
base�s rear detachment commander. It warned wives not to write to
politicians �or speak to the media in a negative manner� about the
postponement, otherwise they risked �tarnishing the image� of their
husbands.
Mr Rumsfeld and General Tommy Franks, the recently retired
coalition commander, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on
Wednesday that the entire division would be home by the end of next
month. On July 7 MajorGeneral Buford Blount, the division commander,
told his troops that they could expect to start returning home at
the beginning of August.
Denise Gonsales, whose husband is one of the division�s Black
Hawk helicopter pilots, said: �Enough is enough. As angry as it�s
made us feel, it�s my husband I really feel for. He and his
colleagues are feeling betrayed and lied to. He believes that if
they have been given a date, they should stand by that date. It�s
causing morale to really suffer. There is a tremendous amount of
anger here and a tremendous amount of anger among the soldiers
also.�
Mrs Gonsales said that she and fellow wives planned to march in
the shopping district of nearby Savannah. Hundreds have written to
their senators and congressman. �We have to have a voice and we have
to be heard, and we have to have a voice for the soldiers that are
there. They�re exhausted. Some are suicidal.�
Kim Wallihan, also the wife of a pilot, said: �We were initially
told they would all be home by July 4 (Independence Day), then we
were told they would be out by August. We just want them to set a
date and stick by it, or not set one. It is shocking that they have
broken their promise again.�
Another wife, who asked not to be named, said: �The Army cannot
bamboozle families anymore. We get e-mails every day from our
husbands. These men are emotionally and physically spent. Blount
says morale is high, but we know this is balderdash.�
In an attempt to soften the news a Pentagon official said that Mr
Rumsfeld was �committed to the intent� of having the division out by
the autumn. But he added: �We don�t want to nail it down to a
month.�
British troops are also in Iraq for the long haul, with some
units on their second deployment in six months (Michael Evans
writes). Some reservists, especially NHS consultants and surgeons
called up for the war, have had to stay for longer than their
expected six-month tours to fill in while regular Army colleagues
went home for a rest.
Units on a second tour include a squadron from the 2nd Battalion
Royal Tank Regiment. Among the first into Iraq in March, it was sent
back after six weeks�
leave.
